A New Word: Malotype

Posted on March 15, 2024 by way0utwest

malotype– n. a certain person who embodies all the things you like the least about yourself – a seeming caricature of your worst tendencies – which leave you feeling repulsed and fascinated in equal measure, having stumbled on a role model of exactly the kind of person you never want to be.

One of my hobbies is coaching volleyball for kids, teenagers really. This year I’ve taken on 13 year olds, and helping out with an 18 year old team as their coach is out for a few weeks. It’s been an interesting dichotomy, and I’ve now helped coach all ages from 13-18.

In the eight years I’ve been coaching, I’ve worked with, and watched a number of coaches. In that time, I’ve seen a few that are polar opposites of who I try to be. One in particular that was very good at understanding the game, knew all the rules, and recognized things to exploit in opponents.

However, this person was not good with players, in my opinion. Harsh, unapproachable, didn’t listen to concerns, didn’t provide support, belittled (my opinion) players, and demanded too much.

I can be loud, and I’ve been short with players at times. I try not to do that often, and I try hard to support them to help them grow, accepting their fallibilities while pushing them to grow and change. A number of players have said they would never want to be near that coach again and one quit a time.

I hope I never become my malotype.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

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Navigating the Database Landscape

Posted on March 13, 2024 by way0utwest

The title of our keynote session at the Redgate Summit in Atlanta is Navigating the Database Landscape, and I’ll be delivering part of the talk, along with Grant Fritchey and Kathi Kellenberger today, Mar 13. This is based on the State of Database Landscape Survey results, as well as our experience working with customers and implementing DevOps solutions over the last decade. The talk was mostly written by others, but as I rehearsed the session, I found myself wondering about how I’d approach my job if we returned to being a DBA or developer.

When working in technology today, there are many challenges outside of actually learning about any of the particular products, languages, platforms, etc. We have the politics of working with others, ongoing work, emergency requests outside of channels, random questions asked by others, code reviews, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting, all outside of learning any new skills. While I consider myself a lifelong learner, I know that finding time (and energy) to acquire the basics of any new technology is challenging.

At the same time, while working in any size estate, it seems that someone always wants to add a new tool, platform, language, service, or database to the environment. It’s great we have choices, but it seems like sometimes every technologist wants to just use something new rather than work within the areas we have experience. Early in my career, it was rare to find more than 1 or 2 database platforms in a company. Now we have lots, often seemingly just added because one person watched a talk or video and thinks it would solve all our problems in this particular instance.

Working in an enterprise of any size likely means there are multiple database platforms in use. While you might only be in charge of 1 or 2 today, who knows when someone will call you as the “database expert” and expect you to configure Redis or troubleshoot ElasticSearch. I’ve had friends in this position, and I’ve had people come ask me to figure out MySQL, DB2, BTrieve, Lucerne, and more in my career. It’s a challenge, and it’s also stressful because I want to do a good job, even if I don’t know what I’m doing. Fortunately Internet search, contacts among friends, and more have helped me usually solve an issue.

The modern database landscape is likely to be more complex than ever, and with the advent of cloud services, we find there are lots of options that anyone in an organization might choose to use in production, and then ask you to support them. Our jobs are increasingly complex, both from the depth of things we need to know about a database to the breadth of different products and services that might enter our realm of responsibility. Navigating all this is a challenge, but if you rise to the occasion, there can be a lot of rewards.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

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Atlanta for Two Days

Posted on March 13, 2024 by way0utwest

Today is the first Redgate Summit of 2024 in Atlanta. I flew to town yesterday,

There is a packed schedule, which is mostly repeated at our other events coming up in the next few months. I’m especially busy, somehow getting roped into 5 sessions. Fortunately a few are panels, so it hasn’t been too much prep or rehearsal.

I’ve rarely been to Atlanta in my life. We had a SQL in the City here a few years back, but otherwise, I haven’t traveled to the city. My wife used to come here often, but this is only my second trip.

Last night was meeting a few speakers and networking. Tonight, I’m likely to lay low as it’s going to be a long day. The Hawks are out of town, so I’m likely to get a quiet dinner and decompress before an early flight tomorrow.

Hopefully I’ll get to town at some point in the future and spend more time wandering around.

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Come to a Redgate Summit in 2024

Posted on March 11, 2024 by way0utwest

This week is the first Redgate Summit of 2024. It’s Wednesday, in Atlanta and you can register and join me if you’re in the area.

These are full day conferences, with multiple tracks, similar to the SQL in the City conferences we used to run. With our move to supporting database professionals on any platform, anywhere, we’ve rebranded these as Redgate Summits. Come join me at one of the following dates, if you are anywhere in the area:

I’m not sure if we’ll be doing Redgate Summits in AUS this year, but I’ll be in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne in May.

The Atlanta schedule is packed, with especially for Grant and me, but we’ve got engineers, Friends of Redgate, and other experts coming. We’ve got some AI experts as well, and with three tracks, there will be plenty for you to learn. Ask us questions, get inspired, find out how you can better build and manage database software.

Hopefully I’ll see you are one of these events this year.

Now, back to holiday today for me, as I’m coaching the final day of Colorado Crossroads for my 13s team, as well as helping with an 18s team.

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